Antifriction bearing



Jam 2, 1940, F, o. HllcKLlNG ANTIFRICTON BEARING Filed'Aug. 2e, 19s? Patented Jan. 2, 1940 PATENT ori-lcs 2,185,339 Arrrirarc'rron amiamo Fred Osgood Hickling, Nottingham, England, 'assignor to Ransome and Maries Bearing Company Limited, Newark-on-Trent, England, a

British company Application August 26, 1937, Serial No. 161,130"

In Great Britain September 21,' 1936 ZCIaimS.

This invention relates to improvements in antifriction bearings and particularly to shielding or sealing means to prevent leakage of lubricant and the entrance of foreign matter into the bearing.

The object of the present inventionis to provide a bearing with a grease shield or seal or the like which will have concentricity and a satisfactory fitting inthe bearing. A further object is to provide a grease seal or the like which will be wholly positioned within thel ring members of an antifriction bearing unit of any type, the arrangement being such that the seal will be concentric with the bearing tracks.

With these and other objects in view the invention consists in fitting within an antifriction bearing 'a grease shield or-a grease seal or the like the periphery of which is adapted to contact with the surface of one of the ringsin such a manner that the shield or seal will be definitely located concentrically with the other ground portions. A 'Ihe-invention further consists in fitting within the outer ring of an antifriction bearing a grease or lubricant retaining seal comprising a ring member or ring like casing carrying a resilient pad or the like the outer diameter of the ring member fitting into the bore of the outer bearing ring in such a manner that the seal will be maintained in a concentric position. `The invention further consists'in providing a groove within one of the bearing rings to receive a pressed concentric extension of the grease seal casing whereby the said grease seal can be readily located in position and prevented from working loosduring service.

The invention will now be described with reference to thek accompanying drawing, in which- Figure l is a part sectional elevation of a ballv bearing showing -one form of grease seal constructed according to this invention; y i Figure 2 is-a similar view showing a grease seal at each side of a ball bearing;

Figure 3 is asimilar view to Figure 1 showing a modiiied form of seal for a stepped inner bearing ring;

Figure 4 is a similar View showing a double (Cl..308-18'I.2)' A Igrease seals partly supported at each side .of a

ball bearing having a stepped inner ring;

Figure 9 is a part sectional elevation of a ball bearing showing a grease shield supported at each side of the bearing track, and' 5 Figure 10 a similar view showing a .grease shield at one side of a ball bearing having a stepped inner ring.

According to one form of this invention the outer and inner bearing rings I and 2 respecll) tively of' an antifr'iction bearing such as a ball bearing as shown in Figure 1 are extended in a width on one side of the rolling tracks 3 and 4 for the balls 5 and the tracks 3 and 4 and adjacent surfaces 6 and 1 of the outer and inner l5 rings I and 2 are ground so that ground seating surfaces will be provided for a grease or lubricating seal a which is inserted within the extension of the rings l and 2 The grease or like seal a comprises a preferably `pressed metal ring 9 of 20 substantially L shape `in cross section and an apertured disc IU positioned within the ring 9 in such a manner as to provide a boxing to retain an annular felt or other flexible pad II or pads to actas a seal. The diameter of the aper- 25 ture in the pad I I is slightly less than the diameter ofthe apertures in the ring 9 rand disc I0 so l.that only the pad I I will contact with the ground surface of the inner ring 2 and thus prevent the entrance of foreign matter to one side of the bear- 30 ing and act to retain the lubricant therein. The L shaped metal ring 9 is extended inwardly at I2 and shaped or pressed so as to retain the disc I0 in position against one side of the pad II and the outer edge of this concentric extension I2 35 o f the ring 9 is curved or pressed outwardly at I3 so as to provide locating means for the seal by engaging in a groove I4 formed in the ground 4 surface of the outer ring I. This groove I4 is arranged adjacent to and concentric with the 40 ball track '3 in1 the outer ring I and is of such size that the outward extension I3 of the seal does not necessarily iit therein, butacts as positioning means when the grease seal a is pressed into place. Further the arrangement is such as 45 to provide an additional assurance against the grease seal member c working loose during service. It will be seen that by this arrangement the outer surface. of the grease seal casing 9 will seat and engage with the preferably ground inner surface 6 of the outer ring I and thus the grease seal a will be held in a concentric position and f will be prevented from sliding out of position by its rim I3 engaging in the groove I4. The resilient pad II and boxing of the grease seal is of auch width as to provide a substantial bearing Y surface. The balls I are shown as mounted in a retaining cage I but obviously the bearing may` be a ball or roller bearing of any type.

In a slightly modified construction as shown in Figure 2 a grease seal a is iitted in the manner previously described to each side of the track of' a ball bearing; in this case the outer and inner rings I and 2 have theirv adjacent sur- .faces 6 and 1 ground so as to provide seating surfaces for the grease seals. If desired, the grease seal a may bev shaped to fit into a stepped inner .ring. In this case the vertical wall of the L shaped pressed metal ring 9' is extended or formed with an additional L shaped portion I6 which is adapted to lie in the stepped recess l'lof the inner bearing ring 2. In Figure 3 a grease seal a i is shown fitted to one-side of the bearing and in Figure 4 .to both sides of the bearing. It will be understood that the grease seal a may 'be so formed that the-pad H will bear on the outer ring l.

, Figure 5 shows such an arrangement in which the seal is retained by providing the groove I4 in the inner ring 2. When a'grease seal is fitted to each side of the ball or roller bearing the inner ring is formed with a pair of grooves-II one veach side of the ball or roller and the bearing ldouble grease seal arrangements, respectively,

and Figure 8 shows a double stepped inner ring 2 similar to Figure 4 but with the outer ring I of shorter length. Inall these latter' cases however, a substantial portion of the grease seal has a bearing on the ground inner surface l1 of the outer ring. Figures 9 and 10 show by way of example ball bearings tted withgrease shields. In these cases the felt pads il and pad retaining discs I0 4are omitted. It will be seen fromthe above description that the seal or shield is held by means of its fitting diameter into the ground surface on the bearing member, the groove Il in the bearing member being merely included as a safeguard and asy a guide to lassist the assembling of the ybearing unit.'Y y

What I'claim is: i

1. A grease seal for antifriction bearings of the type including outer and inner'bearing rings, with an interposed antifriction bearing, the rings laterally ,of thevbearing being ground inwardly of their free edges and on proximate faces, the seal including a metallic housing made up of an L- shaped member having la material length axially of the housing and cooperating directly with the ground surface of the outer bearing ring, a disk bearing against the lnn'ersurface of the L-shaped housing in parallelism to the lateral leg of such housing, and a sealing pad arranged between the lateral lleg of the L-shaped member and the disk and bearing on the ground surface of the inner bearing ring to provide a seal, the. cooperation of the axial portion of the L-shaped member of the housing and the ground surface of the ring serving as a seal against leakage and to maintain an even intimate frictional cooperation between the L-shaped member and the; outer ring to maintain said Lshaped member in exact predetermined relation to the antifriction element in all conditions of use. I f

2. A construction-as defined in claim 1, wherein the L-shaped member of the housing has that f area in contact with the ground surface of the outer bearingy ring extended inwardly toward the antifriction bearing and terminally formed to-seat. loosely in archannel in the inner wall of the outer ring to prevent axial displacement of the seal.

FRED OSGOOD HICKLING. 

